Bolder Boulder director is named to HOF
When Bolder Boulder race director Cliff Bosley was named to the Running USA Hall of Champions on Sunday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it came as a surprise because he didn’t even know he had been nominated until Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray made the announcement.
Bosley’s nomination had been organized surreptitiously by two Bolder Boulder staff members and his father, Steve, the race’s founder who was inducted into the Running USA hall of fame in 2004.
The announcement that Cliff would join him came at the organization’s annual convention.
Cliff, who called the honor “very humbling,” took over as race director in 1998.
“This is really not about me, but it’s about the Bolder Boulder,” Cliff said by telephone from Puerto Rico. “It’s about what we get to do, and collectively how the team looks at what we do. It’s a blessing you get to do. There’s hard things in everything, and there’s certainly hard things with this, too. But at the end of the day, it’s fun that that’s what I get to do and that’s what our team gets to do.”
Running USA is a nonprofit organization founded in 1999 to promote the sport. Steve Bosley was one of its founders.
Cliff has been around the Bolder Boulder since age 12, running the inaugural race in 1979 after it was founded by his father with former Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter.
Approximately 2,200 participants ran the race that year. Over the past 10 years, the race has averaged 47,292 finishers.
“There was always excitement about it, and it always felt like a big deal, even in those early years,” Cliff said.
Steve was with Cliff when he got the news at Running USA’s annual industry conference.
“I can’t describe it,” Steve said, “the great feeling of us both being in the hall of fame.”